SACRAMENTO – Legislative leaders returned to the bargaining table Wednesday to talk with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger about California’s nearly three-month late state budget, a day after he vowed to veto their compromise plan.

Schwarzenegger said the budget lawmakers approved earlier this week was fiscally irresponsible and said it contains only fake budget reforms, not the long-term fixes he says the state needs.

The legislative leaders agree their deal merely pushes California’s budget problems into next year. Lawmakers closed the $15.2 billion deficit with a combination of cuts and accounting gimmicks, such as making workers pay their state income taxes sooner.

The governor’s office said he would veto the spending plan Friday. The Legislature sent the bill to his desk on Wednesday and is expected to try to override his veto, which would require the same two-thirds majority needed in both houses to pass the spending plan.

Democratic and Republican leaders of the state Senate and Assembly met briefly with the governor Wednesday afternoon but said they failed to reach a deal before the governor left for a planned budget rally in Fresno. They are scheduled to resume talking today.

Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, D-Oakland, said he doesn’t see a way out of the impasse because the governor has been unable to persuade fellow Republicans to support the temporary sales tax increase Schwarzenegger proposed to help close the deficit.

“I think the governor knows we have to have a tax increase. We can’t get a tax increase. I don’t know how we’re going to,” Perata said. “This is really a fight between the governor and the Republicans. And as far as I’m concerned, we’ve done the best we could.”

As if to underscore that point, Schwarzenegger appeared later Wednesday with local officials at the budget rally in Fresno, part of which is in the district represented by Assembly Republican leader Mike Villines, who lives in a Fresno suburb.

A cluster of health care workers, mostly nurses who said they have gone without pay all summer, picketed the rally. Schwarzenegger declined to elaborate on talks but told protesters he understands their frustration.

“I see your signs. Every time the budget is delayed, people are suffering. People in the front row are suffering. I see your message. I’m going to give you a budget you deserve,” he said.

Senate Minority Leader Dave Cogdill, R-Modesto, said the top lawmakers sought the meeting with Schwarzenegger to “address some of the concerns that the governor has raised over the last 24 to 48 hours.”

The longest spending stalemate in California history has left hundreds of medical clinics, school programs and state vendors without funding since the start of the fiscal year July 1.